Tour de France - spoilers allowed

[AppleTree]

I was wondering if any of our British TE'ers have been able to be at one of the stages in England. Best start to the Tour de France I can remember seeing. What an incredibly beautiful countryside...every bit as scenic and historically interesting as anything France has to offer. Loved every minute of it so far, from the humorous opening narration to the stage going into London. It's all been WOW. The crowds were staggering, and yeah, sometimes in the way of the peloton... taking a selfie with your back turned toward a moving peloton is rather...stupid.

The tour is going to miss Cavendish and Froome, but I can't help rooting for Talansky, he is looking pretty good so far and very confident. At least he's managed to avoid any major mishaps. The stage on the cobbles was hard to watch.

My favorite moment so far has been seeing Jens Voigt in the first breakaway and then later in the commentary box...so nice to see him one more year still at it!

What's been your favorite moment so far?

[emily_in_nc]

Thanks for starting the thread, AppleTree!

I agree with everything you said. Have really enjoyed the Tour so far, at least until today's stage, which was boring in comparison. The England stages were indeed beautiful and dramatic. I felt *so bad* for Froome; what a horrible thing to work so hard and have such a series of mishaps. I saw that he tweeted that it was his wrist as much as anything yesterday; he just couldn't control the bike in the wet conditions with it. I'm sure he's hurting both physically and mentally now.

I'm rooting for Talansky as well, though I'd never heard of him until this tour...I really don't keep up with the pros in between TdF time, and even less now than I used to, in the Lance years.

Love Jens too -- he is so funny! And glad Bobke is still there. We are in the Pacific time zone for the summer and do our rides in the morning, so catch the tour in the evening (Eastern time, which is 5-8pm PDT), so we always get to see/hear him. Great fun!

[Crankin]

We have the app on the I Pad to watch through our Apple TV device. Over the weekend, we saw it live, but really only watched the beginning and end. So far, this week, we've watched it at night, just the end, the highlights that the network puts on, and the interviews/commentary. I've enjoyed it, but, maybe it's me, it just seems like there's more crashes than 10 years ago.
I like Talansky, too. I read an article about him a few months ago, and basically, he started out just like my son, when he was racing as a teenager. I hope Talansky can take the mental aspect of it, although it seems like he is very level headed. This is what did Scott in (my son). He couldn't take the "mean boys," as he got higher and higher up. Things like the purposeful bumping and crashing, and being entitled and rude to others. One year, when Scott was at the National Junior Development Camp, the other riders were being so awful to the staff, he got in his car and drove home from NY! And, my exchange student, who was a pro and was the German national champion last year, spent a few years in counseling to deal with this. I guess it's like this in all sports, but it's sad that you have be like this.

[azfiddle]

My daughter is in grad school in the UK, and her boyfriend is in Cambridge. Neither could attend the race, but she got interested in watching. Even better, she had a friend visiting last week and send us a couple of items she bought for us- some cute cups and a yellow metal plaque that reads Le Tour in Cambridge Stage 3, in the same script as Tour logo.

I hate the crashes, and can't watch them. It was sad to see Froome have to abandon and I'm hoping that things settle down now.

We have the computer access and hook it up to our tv so I watch in the morning for a while before work and then after work for the end...

[ny biker]

I just got back from vacation, haven't seen much of the Tour so far. I know Cavendish and Froome are out, and Kittel has been doing well.

It would be nice to see Talansky do well. Mostly I'm rooting for Ted King and Ben King to have good tours. Most of my favorites these days are domestiques.

As for the British stages, I watched a few minutes when they were near Rippon. I wondered if any of the Crawleys were there.

[AppleTree]

Would have been fun to see them roll by Downton Abbey!

Hope Talansky is okay tomorrow, he hit the deck pretty hard today.

[Owlie]

I never watch this stuff, but I was at BF's parents' house (with the cable!) for Stage 2. And I was actually interested in watching it, since my parents went to college in Sheffield, and my dad grew up there.

Even my parents, who have no clue about bikes, watched it.

[canadiankate]

Watched the second stage live from Bradfield just outside of sheffield. We cycled up and most of the sheffield outdoors community decided to join us. The beer festival just down the hill may have been a reason too!

It was amazing to watch and I was so very pleased to see jensie on his last tour. Saw the sky team flash past and Kittel in yellow.

As for Froome, It's sad that he had to retire, but it has left the tour wide open. My mate who's a serious cycling geek didnt think it was Froome's year. His money is on Contador and it'll be interesting to see if his call is right. He's predicted the last few TdFs correctly. I also think that many brits would have preferred to see Wiggins in team sky as well as Froome. And have questioned Brailsford's decision even more now! Looks like Porte has some big cranks to turn!

I'm so enjoying the Nibali/Contador face off thus far.

[ny biker]

Nice win today by Blel Kadri. I love it when a breakaway succeeds. I did feel bad that Chavenel got caught so close to the end.

Tough break for Talansky, losing so much time after that crash. On top of all the preparation, you do need a fair amount of luck to do well in bike racing.

P.s. re: Chris Horner's NBC interview -- 7 Cokes and 5 Snickers... love it.

[ny biker]

Ok I messed up with the dvr (I blame the jetlag) and did not record today's stage. I realized my mistake in time to watch part of it live. So I turn it on and find Tony Martin in a solo breakaway and taking over the KOM lead. What the hell? I don't think I've ever seen a time trial master do anything like this.


====

Well now that I've watched to the end of the stage -- it turns out that Martin did the same thing during the Tour of the Basque Country. Good for him!! And good for Tony Gallopin, riding hard to the end when he realized he could get the yellow jersey today. This is one of those days when I really like to watch bike racing.

And BTW I am really enjoying Christian VandeVelde's commentary. He's a great addition to NBCSN's cycling team.

[BikeDutchess]

Another dramatic stage today. Contador abandoning after riding for half an hour on a fractured tibia - incredible! I guess that is what adrenaline will do for you. And rumors still flying about whether it was really the bike that he was riding that had the frame broken in half (some are reporting the cracked frame caused his crash, others are saying he was riding another bike and the broken frame was that of a bike that fell off the car).

Wow. A tour of attrition this year.

[BikeDutchess]

And BTW I am really enjoying Christian VandeVelde's commentary. He's a great addition to NBCSN's cycling team.

I agree - great improvement over the 3rd guy they had last year (who probably was knowledgeable about cycling but whose monotonous voice just about put me to sleep).

[pll]

What a stage. Cycling Tips has the most detailed account of why one of the bikes was snapped... according to that blog, a bike on the roof of the Tinkoff Sax car got tangled with a bike from a Belkin car. The bike snapped while on the roof -- they included a picture where indeed it appears two bikes are tangled:

http://cyclingtips.com.au/2014/07/ti...ontador-frame/

[ny biker]

I'm bummed that Ted King is out.

An article in Velonews said that Contador's bike may have broken when he hit a pothole at 40 mph, because carbon race bikes are not expected to be able to survive that kind of impact. If this is true, I want a new bike. Jeez.

P.s. Tony Martin is the man. I'm still watching today's stage -- he just cracked. Amazing ride.

[malkin]

My TdF Fantasy:

Everyone crashes out except for one rider and finally in Paris: JENS VOIGT WINS ALL THE PRIZES!